Wurlitzer Organette (Style YW Orchestra)

Wurlitzer Style YW Organette
CD -- $9.99

The Wurlitzer style YW Organette featured on this CD is one of two shipped in 1927 that were equipped to play standard player-piano music rolls (the Y prefix designates a player-piano roll case). The Wurlitzer Organette (Style YW Orchestra) is similar in appearance and musical capabilities to the Reproduco, another small keyboard piano based organ built by the Operators Piano Company of Chicago. That the style YW uses player-piano rolls can be seen as a plus, because the instrument is not limited to the rather bland funeral music that was standard fare for most of the organette type machines. When the tape of this Organette arrived I set it aside, mistakenly judging it as uninteresting, not realizing the musical treat that awaited me. The music rendered by the player piano rolls is full bodied and charming, and the Organette, with its beautiful family of flute toned pipework, delivers toe tapping harmonies that are delightful, and that provide highly enjoyable background music for nearly any kind of cheerful occasion.

The tape recording used to create this CD was made by Tim Westman circa 1969. The organette was located in Tim Westman's restoration shop, with the small blower that supplied vacuum and wind-pressure sitting nearby. Once the signal was digitized, a moderate amount of signal noise processing was applied to eliminate tape hiss and the background blower noise. The Organette features a full piano, with mandolin attachment, two ranks of pipes (a rank of open wooden flutes and a rank of metal quintadena pipes) located under the piano keybed and enclosed by a set of swell shutters, and a rank of large stopped wooden flutes that are external to the piano casework. This external rank sits on the floor behind the instrument.

The musical selections on this CD are of happy player piano melodies popular during the 1920's and onward. Expression and the control of pipe registers was accomplished manually by Tim Westman.